The present invention relates to a method of recording information on a writable optical disc wherein information can be written only once in each recording area thereof, and a system for operating the disc.
A spiral pregroove is formed on the surface of the writable optical disc. A wobbling signal for keeping the linear velocity at recording constant and position information are stored in the pregroove. A laser beam is radiated on organic pigment applied on the inner surface of the pregroove, whereby the surface is subjected to chemical change, so that information is recorded.
Referring to FIG. 5a showing a conventional recording format of the writable optical disc such as a CD-R (CD recordable), in a pregroove area of the disc are formed a power calibration area PCA for checking the strength of the laser beam, lead-in areas LI, data recording areas DATA, and lead-out areas LO. The lead-in area LI, data recording area DATA, and lead-out area LO are formed every time a recording occurs
The data recorded in each area is formatted as shown in FIG. 5b. Namely, a synchronizing signal SYNC and a synchronizing signal number S# are written at every predetermined length of each data.
In accordance with the conventional method, a large quantities of the lead-in data and lead-out data must be written at a time when data is recorded on the CD-R. If data are recorded many number of times, the number of the lead-in areas LI and lead-out areas LO increases, so that the area for recording the necessary data is decreased.
Upon reproduction of the data, since the recorded areas cannot be detected, the position of the last recorded lead-out area cannot be determined. The last recorded lead-out area is recognized only when the lead-out area next to the last recorded lead-out area is read to find that no data is recorded therein, that is, the lead-out area is an unformatted area. Since the lead-out area is unformatted, a synchronizing signal which is used for the spindle servo system cannot be obtained. As a result, the reproduced signal is not synchronized. The synchronized reproduced signal is obtained only after a complicated process.